The Hawaii Department of Education, University of Hawaii System and Amazon Web Services are collaborating on a new project to provide training, skills development and certification in cloud computing to Hawaii students.
The new initiative will provide cloud computing education courses that align with certifications through high school and college to create pathways to technical jobs.
“The cloud has become the predominant method to rapidly deploy new information systems and services,” UH President David Lassner said. “We are delighted to enter into this new statewide commitment with AWS, one of the leading cloud service providers in the world, and the Hawaii Department of Education, to plan how we will work together to provide real-world AWS skills and certifications to Hawaii residents and students at all levels across the islands.”
According to Emsi, a labor market data company, there were more than 9.600 unique job postings for Hawaii that required cloud computing skills in Hawaii between August 2021 and July 2022.
Under the new initiative, organizations in Hawaii will work with the AWS Academy program to provide educational institutions with no-cost, ready-to-teach, cloud computing curricula suitable to prepare students for AWS certifications and in-demand cloud jobs.
The program will provide instructor training to educators at participating institutions. Students will be able to access self-paced online training courses and labs from AWS.
State Sen. Bennette Misalucha, who advocated for the collaboration, praised state education leaders for investing in the training needs of the next generation.
“Providing workforce development opportunities for our students will allow them to enter competitive career pathways and live right here at home if they want to,” she said.
According to the DOE, the partners have set a short-term goal of training and certifying 150 learners by 2025.
“This is an exciting time as we align K-12 education and higher education with workforce development and emerging sectors in Hawaii—such as IT and cloud computing—to ensure our students are the top candidates for high-skill, high-wage, in-demand, and future-focused jobs,” Superintendent Keith Hayashi said. “We look forward to working together to strengthen our shared commitment in preparing our future leaders for Hawaii’s workforce needs.”
The initial AWS education programs will be piloted at Aiea and Pearl City high schools, where students will be prepared for internships, apprenticeships and pathways to additional cloud skills training.
“The future of work is being shaped by evolving technology where roles in software development, data science, cybersecurity, machine learning and more often require cloud computing skills,” said Kim Majerus, AWS vice president of U.S. education, state and local government. “As we try to imagine future jobs that don’t currently exist, cloud computing technology will be a driving force in creating those new exciting careers. AWS is proud to collaborate with policy, education and government leaders in Hawaii to prepare learners for in-demand careers today, and help individuals build the foundational skills to pursue the jobs of tomorrow.”
At a ceremonial ceremony at Pearl City High School this week, Pearl City senior Xander Engelman said the program will give students a “step up” over others trying to enter the tech workforce.
“Giving out those certificates allows us to get those jobs and internships that we all want and need,” Engelman said.